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FEATURE STORIES
by Grace Wernicke
Andrew Nielson, senior, was not in school like the rest of his peers on April 26. Instead he was in New York preparing for his performance at the National Shakespeare Competition.
Each year the English-Speaking Union hosts a Shakespeare competition. Aspiring actors compete at three progressive levels, school, regional branch and national.
After winning the school and ESU Kansas City Regional Branch competitions, Nielson was awarded the trip to New York for the final stage of the competition.
Nielson was competing to win the ultimate prize: the Amanda Steele Scholarship to attend the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts Young Actors Summer School in London, England.
The day of the competition marked a major stepping-stone for Nielson’s career.
“I worked with actors for almost two months,” Nielson said. “I even worked with a director from Kansas. Then, a week before the competition, I didn’t perform it at all.”
At the Lincoln Center in New York City, he competed with 58 actors from across the nation.
Nielson sat with 57 other students and watched each actor perform.
“It was four hours of Shakespeare. Everyone was really good, so it was really intense,” Nielson said.
The second part of the competition started at noon.
“At noon, they announced who would compete in the second part. We had to start within 20 minutes of them announcing our names. It was intense, but I was happy I got to compete,” Nielson said.
Nielson performed a monologue from Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night,” along with a sonnet. He was also required to perform a cold reading from “Richard II.”
Along with earning an opportunity to perform along elite actors in the U.S., Nielson preformed for multiple talented judges as well.
These judges included actor Peter Francis James and Manhattan Theatre Club casting director Nancy Piccione.
“They weren’t sure how I placed. I know I didn’t get first, second, or third, and I know I wasn’t 10th,” Nielson said. “It’s been going around the school that I got eighth. I’m not sure how that got around.I just know I’m in the top 10, and I’m happy with that.”
by Kristen Oyer
Throughout the community, few groups of adolescents are as highly regarded as Boy Scouts. The term “Boy Scout” is often associated with respect, responsibility and trustworthiness because of the values that the Boy Scouts program instills.
After becoming a Boy Scout, a boy has the opportunity to work toward becoming an Eagle Scout, the highest honor in the Boy Scout community.
There are many reasons to stay in scouting and become an Eagle Scout.
“My dad wanted me to be in scouting but I realized that I should be in scouting because it builds character, gives moral standards to live by and encourages boys to be good citizens,” Grant Wohlford, senior, said.
Seth Porter, sophomore, explained that he stayed in scouting because he wants to beat his brother because his brother became an Eagle Scout as well.
In order to become an Eagle Scout, a Boy Scout must finish many different tasks, including completing an Eagle Scout project that benefits the community in some way.
“I built a vinyl fence around eight garden plots and strung chicken wire around it to keep the bunnies out of old peoples’ gardens,” Dylan Elsey, senior, said.
Many other Eagle Scouts’ projects revolved around benefitting a church in some way. Ryan Rolle, senior, built a sand volleyball court and horse shoe pits at Great Savior Lutheran Church and Wohlford landscaped at Bethany Lutheran Church.
Many of the Eagle Scouts said the best parts of scouting is that it looks good on résumés.
However, for Elsey, the best part of scouting is “the sense of achievement and getting to order younger scouts around.”
Bryce Boucher, a sophomore Eagle Scout, said the most rewarding part is “all the skills [he’s] taken away from Boy Scouts because [he] knows [he’s] accomplished them all.”
Another accomplishment Boucher will probably have someday is conducting the flag ceremony at his graduation.
This year, senior Eagle Scouts Elsey, Wohlford, Sam Coriden, Derrick Greenlee, Ryan Rolle and Mitchell Skidmore will be conducting the flag ceremony. During this portion of the ceremony, they will present the colors and lead the audience in the pledge of allegiance.
by Fatemeh Mohammadzadeh
MMORPG, first person shooter, strategic, campaign, PVP—what do these words have in common?
Video games.
From Donkey Kong to Halo, video games continue to be an extremely popular activity amongst younger people universally. Just look at the statistics: In 2008, 97 percent of teens ages 12 to 17 played video games, whether they were for computer, web, portable or console systems, according to Pew Research Center Publications. Sixty-five percent of daily gamers are male and 35 percent of gamers are female.
So what’s so boss about gaming? Let’s take a look at some school gamers.
“It provides an escape for you to just relax and not have to worry about things,” Clayton Beyer, junior, said.
Beyer started gaming in kindergarten when his parents bought him a Gameboy. Like any other teenage guy, Beyer explained, he enjoys taking the controls on Call of Duty and any sports game.
For Mercedez Inthavong, senior, gaming provides a filler for free time.
“It gives me something to do, and I like the challenge,” Inthavong said.
Inthavong, who has played video games since she was 8 years old, finds it more difficult to satisfy her love for gaming these days. Work and school get in the way.
Others have this problem as well. In fact, all of the interviewees said that because of school, their gaming time was limited to weekends and breaks.
As a teacher, Mike Jasiczek, social sciences, has a hard time picking up his controllers, especially during rough school weeks. His gaming forte includes Call of Duty as well as Assassin’s Creed.
“Usually my wife’s really mad at me,” Jasiczek said, jokingly. “So I have to go downstairs and play video games.”
Jasiczek also pointed out that most of his gaming buddies are some of his old college friends.
Statistics show that 65 percent of teen gamers play with other people who are in the room with them while 27 percent play games with people that they are connected with online.
Eighty-two percent of teen gamers play alone. Inthavong is one of the people in this percentage who play solo.
“I like to play one player adventure games,” Inthavong explained.
One form of group gaming is what people call “LAN” or local area network parties. The purpose of these parties is for gamers to gather together and use one Internet connection in order to play multiplayer games.
Out of the students interviewed, Mandy Browning, senior, was the only one who had experienced a LAN party.
“I’ve been to a few,” Browning said, “but I’ve never hosted one.”
Browning has been playing video games since she was 3 years old. Recently, she checks out whatever games she hears about that sound interesting, but her favorites include the Silent Hill and Resident Evil series.
For her, gaming is about relaxing, hanging out, letting her mind wander and bonding with her brother. School allows her only an hour a day to play on the weekdays, but on the weekends, Browning plays for up to 10 hours.
Browning’s gaming buddy, Jennifer Salva, senior, is also a heavy gamer. She started out on the Nintendo 64 in kindergarten. Since then, Salva has owned just about every gaming system. Resident Evil, Left for Dead, Call of
Duty, Mario Kart and Soul Calibur are a few of the games that Salva plays.
Salva explained others reactions to her being a female gamer.
“Girls think you’re weird, and guys think you’re cool and chill,” Salva said.
Browning’s experiences with being a female gamer are similar.
“People it’s cool. They get interested and think it’s weird. But I’ve never been made fun of,” Browning said.
Now that summer is just around the corner, the majority of these people will most likely be gaming it up hour after hour.
by Brad Graves
In the world of fast-paced lives and instant gratification, playing video games is a way many teenagers pass the time. In fact, nearly 97 percent of all teenagers have admitted to playing video games, according to Pew Research.
But, how did video game playing “gaming”-- become the multi-billion dollar industry it is today?
Gaming began with a cathode ray tube-based missile defense game in the late 1940s. The gaming industry, however, evolved quickly into various gaming platforms, for instance, arcades, consoles, personal computers and much later, handheld games.
In 1983, the gaming industry crashed. The crash was due to the over saturation of the market with low quality games. However, the crash only lasted about two years. The industry was revitalized by the Super Nintendo.
However, today, nearly 86 percent of teens play on a console like the Xbox 360, PlayStation, or Wii. And also, 73 percent of adolescents play games on a desktop or a laptop computer.
But despite how extreme gaming has become, only a small percentage of the population plays these “hard core” games. In fact, the most popular games are somewhat stimulating to the body and to the mind. For instance, the five most popular games are Guitar Hero, Halo 3, Madden NFL, Solitaire and Dance Dance Revolution. These games all range from “E” for everybody to ”M” for a more mature audience.
According to Pew Research, 65 percent of daily gamers are male and only 35 percent are female. Girls play an average of six different game genres; boys average eight different types.
Gaming is still young and is continually growing, who knows how far the gaming industry will go?
by Emily Cook
What is the point of gaming?
Now, I do not have a problem with video games. I play some classics when I have a chance, (Super Mario on Super Nintendo and Donkey Kong on Nintendo 64), but, unfortunately, that chance is not often.
However, I do have a problem with people spending hours upon hours in front of a television or computer screen trying not to blink as they strive to defeat the newest or best video game.
I honestly do not see the point. I just see it as a waste of time.
As a girl who works hard at school, who is involved in extracurricular activities and who enjoys contact with the outside world once in a while, I cannot imagine spending my time in such a useless manner.
Furthermore, I cannot imagine the benefits gained by those who do game. Is it satisfactory to kill dozens of computerized soldiers? Is it thrilling to be in a virtual world accomplishing feats not possible in reality? Or is pure addiction to blame for this severe waste of time plaguing many teenagers?
This practice is literally beyond my understanding.
Perhaps gaming is a form of release and relaxation. The virtual world takes people away from the hectic demands of daily life and allows them a little vacation from reality. I am definitely guilty of that necessity, though I find my escape with books, which I find more beneficial than gaming.
If this is the purpose of gaming, I cannot criticize too extensively since everyone needs that occasional escape.
Or, is the reason of gaming purely entertainment and addiction?
I recently watched a new PS3 video game being played and I found myself being pulled into its addictive lure. After a major feat was accomplished, I closed my mouth and blinked and decided I did not really enjoy that mindless entertainment.
The extent of gaming, in my opinion, has gone too far. Gamers playing for hours at a time, often sacrificing valuable hours of sleep, do not seem healthy to me.
But what do I know? I’m just a socially active girl who likes to take a walk in the park.
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